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NYU and Shanghai Partner to Create NYU Shanghai

March 27, 2011
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A New Degree-Granting Campus in NYU’s Global Network University

Martin Lipton, Chair of NYU’s Board of Trustees; John Sexton, President of NYU; and Yu Lizhong, President of East China Normal University -- on behalf of the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission and Pudong Special District and ECNU -- today announced that they have reached an agreement to create NYU Shanghai, a comprehensive research university with a liberal arts and science college in China’s financial capital, the first American university with independent legal status approved by the Ministry of Education.

For NYU, the creation of NYU Shanghai is another major step in the evolution of NYU as the first global network university -- standing with NYU New York and NYU Abu Dhabi as a degree-granting portal campus. The global network provides a new architecture for the University, an organic integrated system permitting faculty and students to move easily from within the system to pursue their scholarly interests. In this regard, the architecture of the University incarnates in the free flow of its community the free flow of ideas that has long characterized the academic disciplines and the advancement of thought. In addition to the three portal campuses, the network includes a dozen other global academic sites on six continents, including new sites under development in Washington, DC, and Sydney, Australia. NYU’s global network was recently recognized with the Sen. Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization by NAFSA: Association of International Educators. A full explanation of the global network university idea that can be found online by clicking here.

For China, the creation of NYU Shanghai is a major step in the country’s higher education reform. It expresses a commitment to incorporate internationally accepted standards of university design and administration into China’s efforts to expand access to higher education pursuant to its National Long-term Educational Reform and Development Program.

Mr. Sexton said, “This is a magnificent day for NYU. In the 21st century, NYU is evolving from being, in the words of its founder, Albert Gallatin, ‘in and of the city’ to being ‘in and of the world.’ New York and Shanghai enjoy a natural affinity as world capitals; as vibrant, ambitious, and forward-looking centers of commerce and culture; as magnets for people of talent. As we did in Abu Dhabi, here in Shanghai we have found visionary partners, and our joint effort to create NYU Shanghai emerges out of a common belief in the indispensible value of higher education and in the special opportunities that can be created when the world’s greatest cities join forces. This will be a great university and a great partnership.”

Three Shanghai partners worked with NYU to create NYU Shanghai: the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (which is responsible for all education initiatives within the city); Pudong New Area (the district that has led the city’s explosive growth over the past two decades); and East China Normal University (ECNU is one of China’s most active universities in the formation of international partnerships, and is among the research universities that have made the greatest progress in recent years. It has hosted the NYU’s Shanghai existing Study Away site since 2006, and NYU will look to ECNU in particular for guidance on educational issues within China).

Yu Lizong, President of East China Normal University, declared, “Our past partnership with NYU has been a relationship of great value to both universities. With the opening of NYU Shanghai, we believe that relationship will deepen, to the benefit of students and faculty alike.”

Al Bloom, Vice Chancellor for NYU Abu Dhabi, said, “NYU Abu Dhabi is delighted to welcome NYU Shanghai to our Global Network University. With NYU Shanghai as our partner, we will be able to offer our students even more powerful training in global leadership, to generate research that is enriched by a greater diversity of perspectives, and to model transnational higher education that more effectively serves an informed, productive, just, and cooperative world.”

Dr. Allan E. Goodman, President and CEO of the Institute of International Education, said, “China is a major destination today for international students. NYU’s vision better connects the world we share and is changing what international education means for both students and faculty.”

NYU Shanghai’s first class of undergraduate students will enter in September 2013. The campus is expected to be a magnet for student talent from around the world, with up to half the students to be drawn from China itself. In another first, its admissions process -- which will be highly selective -- will be the first to consider a broader set of admissions criteria than the GaoKao national higher education entrance examination.

NYU has the discretion to determine all academic matters, including the development of curriculum, staffing of faculty, and the selection of students. Academic developments for NYU Shanghai will be overseen by Richard Foley, NYU’s Vice Chancellor for Strategic Planning -- who will report directly to the president of the University -- in conjunction with David McLaughlin, NYU’s Provost. Administrative and operational developments will be overseen by R. May Lee, NYU’s Associate Vice Chancellor for Asia. As in NYU Abu Dhabi, schools and units at NYU’s New York campus will be intimately involved in the shaping both faculty and curriculum at NYU Shanghai.

The undergraduate curriculum will provide a comprehensive liberal arts education, requiring all students to become firmly grounded in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences before pursuing in-depth study in a major discipline. Classes will be conducted in English and in accordance with the principles of academic freedom associated with American colleges and universities. Pedagogical features are expected to include small student-faculty ratios, research experiences, and debate-based discussions. Students will be encouraged to engage in critical analysis and open inquiry. And, unique to the NYU global network university model, students can spend as many as three semesters studying in New York, in Abu Dhabi, or in one of the other NYU global sites that form what the University calls its “circulatory system.”

As a comprehensive research university, NYU Shanghai will support world-class academic research, as well as graduate and professional education. It is expected that NYU Shanghai will quickly distinguish itself in disciplines where NYU is recognized for its intellectual leadership, including, among others, economics and social sciences, mathematics, the biological sciences, neural science, philosophy, art history, the cinematic and performing arts, and professional studies such as business, law, and finance. It is expected that these areas of scholarly excellence will be greatly enhanced by the intellectually vibrant atmosphere of Shanghai.

At maturity, NYU Shanghai could be home to as many as 3,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. Classroom, laboratory, dormitory, and campus life space will all be provided in the heart of Pudong, not far from the site of last year’s Shanghai World Expo. NYU Shanghai will be fully self-sustaining through a combination of government support, tuition, and charitable contributions. Shanghai and Pudong have also made a commitment to NYU that will allow NYU Shanghai to provide world-class research opportunities.

NYU Shanghai will have a range of student services similar to those at its Washington Square campus: athletic programs; student clubs and co-curricular activities; career counseling; student residential programming; and the kind of health, wellness, and counseling programs for which NYU has been nationally recognized.

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Editors’ Notes/Additional Facts

New York University New York campus is located in the heart of New York’s Greenwich Village. Founded in 1831, it is one of America’s leading research universities – with some 43,000 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students -- and a member of the selective Association of American Universities. Among its faculty, students, and alumni are recipients of the Nobel prize, the Abel prize, the National Medal of Science, the National Medal of the Arts, the Pulitzer prize, Rhodes Scholarships, Marshall Scholarships, Truman Scholarships, the Academy Award, and the Tony Award, among many other distinctions. NYU is one of the largest private universities in the U.S., and its student support programs have been nationally recognized. Through its 18 schools and colleges, NYU conducts research and provides education in the arts and sciences, law, medicine, business, dentistry, education, nursing, the cinematic and performing arts, music, public administration, social work, and continuing and professional studies, among other areas.

NYU is widely known for having one of the most expansive and successful global programs in higher education, with portal campuses in New York and Abu Dhabi, and global academic sites in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, South America, and forthcoming sites in Washington, DC and Australia. According to the Institute of International Education, NYU sends more students to study abroad than any other U.S. university, and has one of the largest groups of international students and scholars.

In 2009, NYU’s research funding exceeded $270 million, and NYU was among the top 50 universities in the world numbers of articles published in the prestigious science journal Nature in 2010. From 2004 to 2008, the University received more income from the licensing of technologies developed at NYU than any other US university, and in the past 20 years more than 55 start-ups have been formed around NYU discoveries and ideas.

NYU’s student support services have won multiple awards: its career counseling service won excellence awards in 2007 and 2010 National Association of Colleges and Employers; its Student Health Center won a 2010 American College Health Association award for innovative practices; and in 2009 and 2010, NYU’s student services were awarded six Gold Excellence and two Silver Excellence awards from the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators.

In the last eight years, the Princeton Reviews poll of high school seniors in the United States has placed NYU as the #1 “Dream School” four times and always in the top five.

NYU has reached an agreement to create NYU Shanghai, a comprehensive, degree-granting, liberal arts campus in China’s financial capital. Pictured above is President John Sexton (center) with Yu Lizhong, president of East China Normal University. Below: scenes from the ceremony in Shanghai.